Pick of the week
A Good Person
Despite its lead character – Florence Pugh’s Allison – being hooked on OxyContin, Zach Braff’s involving drama isn’t really about addiction. After a car crash, in which she was the driver, kills her fiance Nathan’s sister, Allison loses herself in despair and drugs. But an unexpected encounter with Nathan’s father, Daniel (Morgan Freeman), who is caring for his dead child’s teenage daughter, offers hope. It’s a tale of forgiveness and redemption, with Allison and Daniel – a recovering alcoholic – working through the collateral damage of their actions. Simon Wardell
Friday, 1.30pm, 8pm, Sky Cinema Premiere
***
Ghosted
This romcom/spy caper turns into a bit of a Marvel reunion for star Chris Evans, with brief cameos from a couple of Avengers (and other MCU friends) adding celeb-spotting spice to the globe-trotting action. Evans plays Cole, a farmer who meets art curator Sadie (Ana de Armas) at a market. A brief fling – and her lack of replies to his many texts – leads him to London, being kidnapped and discovering she is a CIA agent. Director Dexter Fletcher keeps things light and brisk, while the leads bicker their way cutely through a stunt-heavy plot.
Out now, Apple TV+
***
Blueback
A clear environmental message is never far from the surface in Robert Connolly’s coming-of-age drama. Mia Wasikowska anchors the film as marine scientist Abby, who returns to her Australian coastal home to care for her ailing mum. Memories of childhood (played as a teenager by Ilsa Fogg), her no-nonsense eco-campaigner mother (Radha Mitchell) and her encounters with a blue grouper juxtapose with threats to the ocean from development and the climate crisis. Despite the issues it raises, it’s a film of optimism as well as joy at nature’s beauty.
Saturday, 7.50am, 6pm, Sky Cinema Premiere
***
The Pirates! In an Adventure With Scientists!
Before the Chicken Run sequel hatches this autumn, here’s one Aardman made earlier. It’s a rollicking, very British adventure about the Pirate Captain (Hugh Grant) and his desire to gain enough booty to win Pirate of the Year. A meeting with Charles Darwin (David Tennant) – who spots that the ship’s parrot Polly is the last living dodo – offers the buccaneer the promise of vast wealth. Throw in Queen Victoria, a Gromit-like chimp and glorious incidental details, and you have another animated hit.
Saturday, 5.05pm, ITV2
***
Tight Spot
There’s no singing, and only a little dancing, from musical star Ginger Rogers in this 1955 crime drama. She plays convict Sherry, taken from prison to a city hotel in the hope she will testify against a mob boss she knows. Edward G Robinson is solid as the US attorney patiently trying to talk her round, while Brian Keith’s cop bodyguard seems more ambivalent about her. But they are mere supporting acts to Rogers – a flirty, wise-cracking and sharp-witted presence.
Sunday, 7pm, Talking Pictures TV
***
The Whistlers
In Corneliu Porumboiu’s Romanian thriller, morose, corrupt Bucharest cop Cristi (Vlad Ivanov) finds himself in an unusual, and increasingly dangerous, situation. He is taken by gangsters to the Canaries to learn a secret local language based on bird-like whistles, but struggles to keep his lawful and unlawful sides in balance. It’s a pleasingly offbeat setup in an otherwise murky tale, as shifting loyalties around him – and an attraction to his criminal paymaster’s girlfriend Gilda (Catrinel Marlon in femme fatale mode) – make his survival uncertain.
Monday, 1.15am, Film4
***
Sweat
A closeup Polish drama that picks at the uneasy dependency between social media personalities and their followers. Aerobics influencer Sylwia (a tightly wound Magdalena Kolesnik) finds the fragility of her hi-vis persona exposed by loneliness, parental issues and a stalker. Constantly posting her private thoughts online, Sylwia is a breakdown waiting to happen, her self-esteem bound up in factors out of her control. The handheld camerawork, as in-your-face as a selfie, highlights her pressure cooker of an existence.
Thursday, 1.50am, Channel 4
